Bully research at the U

Educational psychologist Anthony Pellegrini with the U's College of Education and Human Development also discovered that children who bullied were "rewarded" for their behavior with increased levels of admiration or romantic interest.

Edited from an original story by Andy Steiner in Link, winter 2002.

From eNews, September 4, 2003

Ever had your lunch money swiped by a bully? Or your books knocked to the ground? Two University professors are chipping away at the root of bullying to uncover ways to interrupt a bully's path of destruction.

Educational psychologist Anthony Pellegrini with the U's College of Education and Human Development has found that preteens use a certain level of bullying to establish their place in the social environment. He observed children enrolled in Georgia public schools (from fifth grade through junior high) in classes, on the playground, and at weekly after-school dances, and examined daily journals the children were asked to keep about incidents of aggression they encountered.

Rates of aggressive behavior rise during tumultuous times, such as when the children made the transition from grade school to junior high. "Kids naturally use bullying as a way to establish dominance when they go into middle school," Pellegrini says. "Once they show that they're tough and the pecking order is established, rates of aggression usually begin to go down."

Pellegrini also discovered that children who bullied were "rewarded" for their behavior with increased levels of admiration or romantic interest. "In the early years, we asked girls to nominate boys that they would like to invite out on a date," he says. "The aggressive boys were the ones who were most likely to get selected. But as they got older, they began to fall out of favor."

While the stereotypical bully is a strapping boy with a chip (or a boulder) on his shoulder, associate professor of child development Nicki Crick says a large percentage of bullies do not fit this stereotype. Many are girls, and they don't use fists to hurt their victims.

"I study what I call relational aggression," Crick says. "I'm talking about using relationships as a vehicle of harm. An early example is when young kids say something like, 'You can't be my friend unless you share the swing with me.' As kids get older, the tactics get much more sophisticated, with stuff like spreading rumors, employing the silent treatment, or just ignoring others."

Crick is observing and interviewing some 230 kids enrolled in Minnesota's public schools. The students, who were nine when the study began, are now 13 years old.

"I'm interested in how bullying occurs throughout the life span and its effect on adult development," she says. "So we're in it for the long haul."

To date, her research has shown that relationally aggressive children are at risk for social-psychological problems such as peer rejection and problematic friendships. Crick says disbelieving adults are one of the biggest hurdles in addressing relational bullying. When a girl who has been victimized says, "this hurts," the adults in their lives dismiss their concerns with a "girls will be girls" version of the "boys will be boys" saying, she explains. "In the end, girls who are bullied end up not having allies."

To learn more about Crick's research, see http://education.umn.edu/icd/faculty/Crick.htm. For information about Pellegrini's study, see http://education.umn.edu/EdPsych/Faculty/Pellegrini.html. And for tips on how to deal with bullies or what to do if your child is a bully, see www.extension.umn.edu/info-u/families/BF923.html.